A Study on Themes and Taiwanese Writing in the Novels in Colonial Taiwan

• Main Authors: Meng-Yi Liu, 劉孟宜
• Other Authors: Huei-Chu Chu
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/28455316959174224557

碩士 === 國立中興大學 === 台灣文學研究所 === 97 === This paper examines the novels of Lai Ho, Tsai Chiu-tung, and Kuo Chiu-sheng, and explores the relationship between thematic consciousness in these novels and writing in the Minnan language. The paper consists of five chapters: The first chapter explains the motivation for the study and summarizes the content of different chapters and sections; the subsequent chapters discuss the novels'' anti-colonialism, folk writing, class, and gender consciousness, and the fifth chapter presents conclusions. This study focuses on the relationship between thematic consciousness and use of the Minnan language in novels. As far as anti-colonialism is concerned, the novels of Lai Ho and Tsai Chiu-tung amply reveal the many types of physical and psychological coercion that the ordinary people of Taiwan faced under Japanese occupation, and the use of the Minnan language in these novels intensifies their anti-colonialist overtones. As for folk writing, these novels focused their criticism on the various abuses retained from traditional Taiwanese society, which both confirmed the role of intellectuals in "cultural awakening," and also established a distinctive folk style of writing in the Minnan language. This realized Huang Shih-hui''s literary ideal of writing about local Taiwanese people and things in the Minnan language, and also produced a record of Taiwanese folk culture during the Japanese colonial period. With regard to class consciousness and gender, Kuo Chiu-sheng tackles class issues in a colonial-period Taiwanese novel by addressing the social problems of capitalism and hardships faced by the oppressed lower strata of society, women, and those on the margins of society. Kuo''s novels contain a mixture of words from Minnan, Chinese, and Japanese, which capture the form of writing that prevailed among the common people of that time, and display the symbolic tools used to express the Minnan language in writing. Apart from class oppression, ethnic oppression also existed during the colonial period, and gender oppression taking the form of such practices as giving child daughters-in-law, human trafficking, and prostitution was common among economically underprivileged groups. These issues are addressed in a clear context of class consciousness and cultural awakening. Nevertheless, due to the distance between intellectuals and the proletariat, and the lack of official administrative resources, it was difficult to achieve a fixed, standardized system for writing in Minnan. The banning of Chinese-language columns in newspapers and magazines in 1937 also constrained the development of Minnan literature. In summary, this paper reaches the following conclusions concerning the novels of Lai Ho, Tsai Chiu-tung, and Kuo Chiu-sheng: First, the authors'' decision to write in the Minnan language, apart from attempting to cure the problem of illiteracy among Taiwan''s working class, also seeks to prevent the colonialists, after having taken control of the political and economic spheres, from also making inroads into Taiwan''s cultural endogenous. Second, these novels realize Huang Shih-hui literary ideal of inducing intellectuals to focus their creative efforts on the working masses, and use the Minnan language in literature in keeping with the path of social realism. Third, the authors'' use of the Minnan language highlights the thematic consciousness in their novels, revealing a clear connection between the use of written Minnan language and the novels'' thematic consciousness.